The God-Hunter - Paused
by Kaiimei
Summary: Asteria the God-Hunter. In times lost to all but herself and the Eldest of the Gods, all feared the name of the one being capable of controlling all of creation. The one being capable of destroying all the Gods had made. The one being...who apparently just appeared in the world of Remnant. Let us watch as she kicks her feet up, grabs some popcorn, and enjoys the show.


**_Hey, another new story! That's what...the 10th one so far?_**

**...**

**Hush, alright? It's not my fault I got stuck with the current Falling Into Petals chapter.**

_**Yeah yeah, make excuses Fire. Lazy butt.**_

**Oi! Cheeky bugger. Anyways, I don't know what's gonna be released first, this or Falling Into Petals, so I'll just say it again. Bold Italics is Illustrious talking (Because they're my _Illustrious_ Helper! Haha!)**

**..._Idiot._**

**Quiet.**

**_Chapter 1_**

* * *

In the ageless night and endless darkness, where nothing existed but the void, She rested, content in the solitude of the darkness, and the silence of eternal nothingness.

And, as reality has a way of doing, her eternal peace was ruptured quite violently by the rather noisy emergence of lesser beings. To themselves, they appeared as great and terrible beings capable of incredible feats, who created many things in their incomparably feeble power, naming themselves Gods and Deities, building a great many things where before there was nothing but blissful nothingness, and ruining the rather comfortable silence she had been basking in for eternity. More than once she entertained the thought of exercising her great power and wiping her void clean of these infernal noise-makers...

But, as these younger beings were deigning to leave her alone, many not knowing she truly existed, she decided to do the same, staying content in her own little patch of hidden and unintruded darkness and watching with exasperation as the young Gods squabbled amongst themselves, creating and destroying anything which took their fancy, occasionally having great wars in 'heaven' between themselves. More than a few times she belatedly was 'forced' to step in when it seemed one of the Gods would actually be destroyed due to the actions of another. While she didn't intervene directly in any meaningful way involving their creations, if one God genuinely threatened the existence of another, she felt it was her responsibility to keep the peace, as the greater power, to stop them from permanently destroying each other.

She never said that she was not above simply separating the two squabbling Deities across the universe.

One creation, however, caught the eye of the eternal entity, and she looked closely upon the creation of the brother gods with a keen focus as the world they had fashioned sprouted with beings far, far inferior to even the gods who created them. If asked, the entity would most certainly not admit that she did, in fact, do the noncorporeal equivalent of a squeal at seeing how pure and cute the tiny weak little things were.

Watching with a mixture of contentment and worry, the ancient being amused herself by observing as these 'humans', as she had seen the Brothers dub them, went about their lives, crafting homes from the strength of their own physical bodies rather than any kind of external power, though occasionally one would emerge capable of dipping a toe into the well of power the Gods gave them access to, something which those same humans, who had free will and intelligence, had called magic. They began using it for a great many different things, being rather ingenious at how they used the tiny trickle of power the Gods gave them, harnessing it, focusing it, and turning the amusingly pitiful output of energy into a rather dangerous weapon the majority of the time, or in rare moments, even creating things for themselves and others out of the energy granted to them, using the power to create rather than destroy.

The Brother Gods knew their little experiment was being watched by her, and more than once they watched with just a hint of true fear as she observed their creation closely, with a scrutinizing eye. It both worried and excited the Gods. Both brothers knew if she willed it, their world would vanish in an instant, and they would likely vanish with it, but for the time being, she seemed content enough to merely observe, so the two Gods simply went about their days, lavishing in the praise their creations gave them. Or rather...one of the Brothers did, though the pair seemed content with the arrangement none the less.

She observed these humans as they grew arrogant and conceited, believing themselves strong within their Kingdoms of power, never knowing of true strength, but again she stayed her hand, watching the Gods as they tried to fix their experiment before it was too late.

She felt the first flicker of strong and true emotions take hold of her existence when she watched the Gods begin toying with a single broken female human, seemingly enjoying her torment at seeing her lover of yore be brought back and destroyed repeatedly. But, as was her decision, she held herself from interfering, allowing the young Gods this chance to see what responsibilities their power brought.

When they abandoned their planet, leaving the same woman alone and desperate, as well as immortal, she had to exercise a great deal of restraint over herself to stop from forcibly dragging the two Gods back to their planet like wayward younglings to atone for their horrible decisions. She instead spent her time watching the planet as it blossomed into life again, observing the formation of 4 great, by the worlds comparison at least, Kingdoms. Large bastions of 'humanity' against the spawn of the God of Darkness.

It was rather interesting to watch the one the gods reincarnated attempt to make peace with his lover, though she was too lost in her darkness to truly appreciate what he wanted to do. Watching them fight was definitely a clash to remember, and even after it turned from direct fighting to indirect skirmishing between 'Salem' with her Grimm and 'Ozma' with his Hunters, she still garnered much enjoyment out of watching the conflict.

More than once, she played with the idea of directly intervening, of perhaps becoming a third force in this skirmish, merely to satiate her own curiosity. However, she always stayed her hand, preferring instead to simply watch it, just as she had watched a star combust, or when she saw an entire galaxy disappear into a Black Hole, not interfering and instead allowing the other God's creations to entertain her.

Really, some of the things those Gods came up with were so amusing to see.

It took her a long while to finally give in to her urges, and she finally began planning on just what she wanted to do whilst down on 'Remnant', as the local humans called their world. While she enjoyed being neutral, sometimes the want to simply be amongst those she watched got too strong, and more than once she had to fix the planets she had visited when she inevitably ruined some scenario one of the Gods were playing with.

Her most unbreakable rule was to not give major assistance to either side of this war. If she told a lost Hunter where the nearest town was, that was fine. Or giving some training to an eager and intrepid young girl, that was fine by her. If a Grimm approached her, she would leave it be, though she would finally satisfy her urge to pet one of those absolutely adorable 'Beowolves'.

But telling Ozma, or 'Ozpin', as he went by now, exactly where Salem lived was completely out of the question. And the same for telling Salem where the Maidens were. The overarching war was still far too interesting to break apart, and she wanted to see just who would triumph over the other.

And so, that was how she found her way onto the surface of Remnant in a human form. For the sake of simplicity, as well as amusing herself, she settled on a name for herself, Asteria. She knew the humans of the world had come up with their own 'religions', many involving various deities, some of whom did have close replicas. Her own choice for a name, a Goddess of the Stars, was close in relation to a Goddess she had 'spoken' with before, though their mythology was different, as well as the name. But, it was still remarkably amusing how closely the human-worshipped deity resembled the Goddess.

While the name wasn't quite apt for describing her, since she was far more than a mere deity, especially one tied to something as lowly as stars, it was the closest example she could find for herself. Some may call it a silly idea to name herself something even remotely close to her true existence, but since she had no plans to reveal even an infinitesimally small portion of her powers unless she had to, she didn't really think it was much of a risk.

And anyway, she liked the name, so that was that.

* * *

Despite a powerful being giving herself form and appearing on their world, there was no loud thunderstorm, nor world-trembling omens occurring to mark the day as important. It was a miserable, dreary and rainy day that saw Asteria appear quite innocuously in a forest, immediately admiring her new form, her white wolf ears twitching on her head.

The Faunus of Remnant were definitely her favourite of the two species that inhabited Remnant, so obviously she'd make her form in a mirror of them, and what better than a white wolf? Honestly, the humans who saw Faunus as inferior were clearly either delusional or just plain idiots to not see how much of an advantage they had. But it didn't matter, what Human-Faunus relationships existed were of no real consequence to Asteria, since it probably wouldn't have much of an effect on her.

Hmm, what was that law again, the one the humans came up with for something going wrong if you talk about it...Oh well, not a big deal.

It was a rather novel thing, feeling the wind breeze past her body for the first time, as the rain pelted down and drew an unconscious shiver from the woman, making her frown. While she didn't necessarily need to feel all the biological things in her form, it would both enhance her experience, and also help with avoiding any awkward situations. She knew that humans and faunus relied on clothing, both to protect their 'modesty' and also to help keep them warm, and so she quickly fashioned herself the underthings faunus females would wear, then tapped her chin in thought.

Raising her hand to fashion a mirror to look upon herself, Asteria stayed her hand with a frown. She didn't really want to use her powers so freely, and it would be hard to explain it away, even with the excuse of an overpowered 'semblance'. Shrugging, Asteria began putting her outfit together, a black short-sleeved t-shirt and some regular blue jeans, then slung a white Lab-coat over her shoulders, shoving her arms through the sleeves at the same time as some socks and walking boots appeared beside her feet. Quickly putting them on, Asteria stepped up to the mirror and twirled, unconsciously letting a smile form on her face at the sight of her, though she tilted her head, as she felt something wasn't quite right with the image.

Thinking on it a moment, the disguised Goddess, in a very human fit of emotion, face-palmed. Of course, a human woman appearing from the woods with absolutely no defence against the Grimm would be utterly bizarre. While she knew that the Grimm would stand no chance against her, to anyone else, she was an unarmed and unprepared woman who shouldn't have made it 5 steps before being chewed to pieces.

Casting her mind back to the weapons prevalent on the world, she mentally went through several thousand different weapons, each one simply feeling like she wouldn't want to use it. Sure, she could use each and every one quite easily, but the entire point of her being on Remnant was to enjoy herself. Coming across the memory of watching a girl wielding two revolvers as she flipped over a giant monster and shot it and its companions brought an immediate smile to her face, and the Goddess fashioned identical weapons, before stopping.

She distinctly remembered another world, one that still had access to magic, where a boy with red hair fashioned weapons and armour by looking at them and analyzing them. It was a lot more complicated than that of course, but perhaps she could pretend her semblance was the ability to clone items she'd seen. What did that boy call it...Tracing, that was it. That sounded like a fun idea to the Goddess, and she materialized two holsters on her thighs for her new weapons, slipping them in easily and sighing. After she had her things all set up, she vowed to only use the rest of her powers in great need...or if she got bored...or just really really wanted to.

Some would likely call her indecisive and childish.

Some also weren't ageless entities capable of erasing all of reality with an idle thought, so there.

Snapping herself out of her own odd thoughts, Asteria did a once-over of herself, idly creating a pouch on the small of her back underneath her labcoat and filling it with ammunition for her new weapons, then creating human 'essentials' like food, water, a little of the local currency, called lien, subsequently making another pocket on her pouch for all these items to go into.

Thinking over it for a moment, Asteria knew there was probably more than a few things she was forgetting, but they likely weren't important anyway, so she ignored them, mentally locking up her powers, which basically consisted of telling herself not to use them, aside from her tracing abilities of course, and happily set off in a random direction, leaving no evidence she was ever in the clearing aside from her new scents and her footprints, going over names for her new revolvers in her head.

She eventually settled on Illusion and Delusion. True, she would never speak the second part to any who did not know of her...unique situation, but it amused her that these weapons, which were created by a being higher than a God to sell her illusion, were telling people of her trickery. She fooled them all with an illusion and would delude them into believing she was merely a human, like them.

And so, as she patted her guns, going over the names a few times, Asteria allowed herself to lose herself in the repetition of walking, her body idling walking through the wilderness of Remnant, taking in every sight, every sound and smell, relishing in the rain running through her hair and across her skin, the wind whipping the rain around her like an endless blanket of moisture.

She did not miss the approach of several animals as they followed her, several of which came almost within arms reach. Spotting a far darker hide than any normal animal, the woman felt her lips curl up on their own when she saw a Grimm, attracted to the random cluster of animals, breaking the treeline and locking eyes with her. Wanting to observe the creature, Asteria brought herself to a stop, one hand on a revolver whilst the other hung at her side, watching the Beowolf for any indication of threat.

What she did not expect, however, was when the creature, rather than growling at her and following its instincts to kill humans, merely sniffed a few times before rumbling and nonchalantly strolling over to her, its entire body loose and not at all ready for a fight, before settling down a few feet from her still form and watching with its beautiful ruby-red eyes, curiosity plastered across its maw.

Reaching an arm out towards the creature, Asteria observed as it took a few more sniffs of her before leaning forward and butting its head against her hand, drawing a smile from the woman, who ran her hand across the incredibly soft fur atop its head, admiring the bone-like armour adorning its body. It truly amused her that such a beautiful creature could be so deadly. When not influenced by the hatred for all humans, it was surprisingly docile.

It was definitely intriguing that the creature knew, somehow, despite all evidence on the contrary, that she wasn't actually human, but perhaps they were either smarter than they let on through their actions, or they had some kind of innate sense, an ability to sniff out a human soul perhaps. Or maybe the creature recognized her strength, suppressed as it was, and it knew that to fuck with her was akin to an easy death sentence.

It didn't matter to Asteria, as she would have pet a Beowolf at some point either way, but being able to tick that off her list during her first day on Remnant was convenient. Not that she wouldn't be going on to pet many more of the cuter Grimm types out there. Griffon, Nevermore, and Sphinx, those were the ones she had yet to pet. While they weren't nearly as fluffy-looking as the Beowolves, they all had feathers or fur, so she wanted to pet them all. The rest...well, they were nice enough but didn't look very pettable, all sharp spikes and endless chitin plating, with little to no fur or feathers

Hmm, maybe she could keep a Beowolf around as a pet, it'd be nice to be able to just glomp a nice big furball when she felt like it after all. Not even 5 minutes of petting the fur of the one under her hand and she could already tell that Beowolves were gonna be her favourite.

That was why it was so distressing that a gunshot decided to ruin her day, pealing through the air and sending all the animals scattering, making the woman cringe from the rather loud noise causing her ears a bit of mild pain. What was more distressing was the black ichor which made up the Grimm's 'blood' pouring from the head of the creature below her, and it didn't get so much as a moment before it began evaporating.

"Hmm."

That was the first vaguely word-like thing she'd let slip from her new mouth. A simple humming sound. With a sigh, Asteria turned towards where the gunshot came from, seeing a rather bedraggled and red-haired woman leaning against a tree, her sword raised and shaking slightly, letting Asteria see the clear indication of a gun-barrel running the length of the blade.

No smoke rising from the weapon so she assumed the round was being propelled by the dust the denizens of the planet used as a propellant for their projectiles. Gunpowder did exist on the planet, considering how simple it was to make, but they never seemed very willing to actually use it. So many worlds all too willingly corrupted their atmosphere by using gunpowder and oil, amongst other things.

The dust of Remnant, however, got around this problem, granting power and propulsion without causing corruption in the atmosphere. It had its drawbacks, namely the abhorrent conditions the Faunus were regularly put into in order to mine it from the dangerous locations it was found in, and could only be activated with certain conditions. But, that was enough pondering, the woman was clearly having a hard time processing what she had seen, and without much thought, Asteria folded her ears up so they'd hide amongst her hair, unsure of whether the woman would perhaps become prejudiced against her for the fact she had awesome ears.

"Well, that was rather unpleasant, but thank you for your intervention none the less, even if it was unnecessary." Asteria decided it would be wise to adopt a detached and slightly aloof persona, it would fit in well with her wish to observe the world, whilst simultaneously covering some of her eccentricities, namely the fact that for the past few minutes she had been petting the head of a Beowolf.

"I...wha-" The woman seemed rather confused, as though she couldn't process what exactly she had just seen.

Frowning, Asteria turned her gaze to the almost entirely disintegrated corpse of the Beowolf. "I can assure you that the Beowolf was no threat to me, quite the contrary. It presumably has to do with my emotional state, as I was perfectly calm and tranquil, thus the Beowolf had no negative emotions to be attracted to, thus equating me to perhaps just another animal. Hmm, this may require more study now that I think upon it."

Her little gambit seemed to pay off, as the woman almost immediately adopted a stance that, while still vaguely cautious, was mostly relaxed, though she was definitely favouring one side of her body than the other and keeping a hand near her now sheathed sword. A fleeting desire to use her powers to just know what was wrong with her washed over Asteria briefly, but she pushed it away in favour of simply frowning at her. "Now, are you all right?"

"Huh?" the woman snapped out of her staring to look at the face of the woman who had been...petting...yes, she was definitely petting the head of a Beowolf. Despite her explanation, trying to attribute a Beowolf, a creature she had been born and raised to see as nothing but a monster, to the creature she had been running her hands across, was seemingly impossible. "Oh, I'm fine." She followed her claim up with a weak chuckle, thumping her side and suppressing her grimace at the flash of pain the action drew. "Nothing a little time won't fix!"

"If you say so." That was all Asteria said, and she peered a bit closer at the woman. Black clothes under a white cloak, with grey eyes and red hair, a rather typical gun-sword in her sheath. She apparently had some kind of problem with her side if the stifled grimace and the quite obvious favouring of her other side was any indication, though she seemed adamant on not revealing she was in any way in danger, so if the woman dropped dead it wasn't her fault. "Well, while I appreciate the assistance, if you could point me to the nearest town, I'll be on my way and you can get on with...-" Asteria gestured vaguely towards the woman. "-...whatever you are currently doing."

"Ahaha, yeah, about that. I kinda...don't actually know where the nearest town is. I'm a bit lost right now, and I got separated from my team, so considering how long it's been, I'll be assumed MIA...sorry, missing in action,-" She quickly clarified the acronym for the confused woman, "-and so as we decided upon, they'll now go to the nearest town with a CCT connection and send a message to Vale, who will then send out a search and rescue team to look for me, and by extension they'll find you. So, if you want to go to Vale, stick around, otherwise...I guess just pick a direction and hope you have enough supplies?"

Thinking on it a few moments, Asteria shrugged, waving a hand towards the forest. "Well, what town did you come from, and how long has it been since you left? That way I can walk out that long in one direction and then make a big circle until I come across the town."

"That...probably wouldn't end up going well. You'd probably not make a perfect circle, and we left the town at least a week ago, meaning a single degree of error in your circle puts you away from the town by literal hours. Besides, I wasn't exactly counting the exact hours and minutes we stopped and started, meaning you'd almost certainly start at the wrong distance anyway. So, while I can't decide it for ya, probably best to just come to Vale."

With a deliberately drawn-out sigh, Asteria merely shrugged. "I suppose. Well, since we will likely be spending at least a day together, I believe introductions are in order. I am Asteria, a pleasure to meet you." She punctuated her introduction with a swept arm and a bow, slightly baffling the huntress before her, who wasn't quite used to seeing anyone be so formal, especially in the middle of the woods.

"Oh, um, well hi, my name's Kara, though I sometimes go by Nix...it's uh...nice to meet you I guess?" She said sheepishly, trying to imitate the bow slightly and failing hilariously, bending too far and placing her arm at her waist quickly, not that it really mattered. "So uh, this is Banesweeper." She drew her sword and swung it about a bit. "It's a typical Gun-sword, not much to say about it really. I mean, what's so hard to understand about swish-stab-shoot-swish?"

"I agree entirely." Asteria flicked back each side of her lab-coat and laid her hands on her revolvers. "These two are Illusion and Delusion, they've saved me from an errant experiment and sloppy field-test more times than I would care to mention. They don't have any fancy mecha-shifting, and they are, for all intents and purposes, simply a pair of powerful revolvers. I don't much care for obscenely flashy and complicated weaponry when a simple pair of revolvers handle my work just fine." Holding her hand out, palm up, Asteria willed a copy of Kara's weapon into her grasp, smirking at the rather awed look that instantly appeared on Kara's face. "But where my strength lies is in my semblance."

Ignoring the gasp that the woman let out, Asteria continued. "Though it is not without its drawbacks. To bring something into existence like that is rather taxing, so while I could create a dozen swords just like this-" She hefted the sword before dropping it to the floor, "-in a neat little pile, I'd be next to useless after doing so. And the same for complexity. I could make a Bullhead appear, but I'd lose consciousness and possibly fall into a coma from the sheer effort it'd take." Of course, she didn't actually have any such limitation, but if she said her power was limitless...that would definitely draw some bad attention to herself. Going to Vale sounded nice enough, but she did want a little time to enjoy the wilderness before going to the same place the reincarnating man made his base at.

It occurred to her that perhaps trusting the woman in front of her with even that much knowledge of her 'semblance' was a bit risky, but something, perhaps an errant instinct, told her the woman could be trusted with at least this much.

"Woah, wait, so you could copy..." The woman trailed off for a moment before focusing. "You can't copy anything living though, can you?"

"Hmm, well it's a bit debatable. I can create seeds, which can go on to be fully living trees, but actually making a living tree is a bit beyond me. The same for a human. Technically I could just create an embryo and inseminate it, but it would be pointless. Not to mention the problems, both legal and moral, that would arise from doing such a thing. However, I can create things like food and water just fine apparently, even certain foods which are technically living like yoghurts, or bread which requires yeast. Despite my extensive studies, my own semblance sometimes eludes me with its applications."

"Wow. I mean...that's...How have I never heard of you before?" Kara asked Asteria, and the woman merely smirked.

"Kara, if the whole world knew of my semblance, what would happen? Would I be allowed my own will and wishes to travel the world, or would I be immediately locked in a facility where they would undoubtedly attempt to artificially recreate my semblance, either through pure genetic experimentation or even something as crude as forced breeding? Imagine it, everyone in the world capable of producing almost anything on a whim. And to them, the only cost would be the incarceration and subsequent immoral and inhumane experimentation of a single woman. I'm sure it'd all be covered up easily."

Kara blanched and opened her mouth as though to argue, but snapped it shut without a sound. A few moments of Asteria staring went by before Kara opened her mouth again and sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I guess you want me to keep it a secret?" The flat look the other woman gave Kara was enough to make her cringe. "Dumb question. So uh...I'm guessin' you're a scientist or something huh?"

"No, I'm totally just a disguised Grimm in a lab-coat. Honestly though...not exactly. I don't do any of that weird stuff you see on scroll videos or in movies, mixing chemicals and typing out formulas, I just...observe stuff I believe is the closest terminology. As you saw when you first met me, I was observing being pretty much entirely unfeeling around a Grimm, and the results were rather unique, which leads me onto other things I can observe, like baiting a Grimm by using an emotion and then stifling it and seeing whether the Grimm stayed aggressive towards me or not, though since not a single person I've met can stop themselves feeling emotions like I can, it wouldn't exactly be something people could use to stop the Grimm from threatening them. It isn't a common, nor an easy skill to learn."

Sighing, Asteria shrugged. "But, I digress. I assume staying in the local area would be best, until your search and rescue hunters get in the area, then we can presumably launch some kind of identifying signal, a flare perhaps, or maybe even something as simple as smoke from a fire, and draw their attention to us?"

"Yeah, I didn't bring any flares or a launcher or anything, so we'll just go with..." Kara began, only to let her mouth stop moving when Asteria reached behind herself and, with a flourish, brought out a flare gun in one hand, a few shots in her other hand, the only indication of her tracing being the slightly heavier breathing and the light glazing of her eyes, demonstrating the strain tracing objects put upon her. "That is...criminally useful."

"Indeed, it's always handy, I just have to be careful to not over-do it. Wouldn't be good if I wanted some water but knocked myself out from doing too much tracing in one day." Asteria then tilted her head. "Though I could use it to create something big when I wanted to get some rest, something which would push me just barely too far...hmm, a test for another day." Asteria dropped the flare gun, de-materializing it and surprising Kara. "Oh, yeah, I can also break my traces down, though usually I don't bother with that, and especially with food. I haven't ever tested it, but I imagine eating a portion of traced food and removing it after my body has assimilated the nutrients would be rather...detrimental."

"Yeesh, yeah, I can imagine. Suddenly having whatever components made up that food suddenly disappearing from your body...that's uncomfortable to think about." Kara shuddered at the implication.

"Don't worry though, unless I directly will it, my traces are basically as real as the ground beneath our feet, or the air we are breathing. I imagine they would stay around even if I were to die, so don't worry about that. And anyway, after about a year any components of the traced food will have almost certainly been filtered out of the body though various means like skin cells and whatnot, so by the time I die, it's likely that any traced food nutrients and vitamins are long gone from your body. Of course, said nutrients would have been filtered through the life cycle and will disperse into many other people, but at that point the traced food will be so diluted and spread out that it would be nothing more than singular atoms, not nearly enough to do anything noticeable."

Asteria had to truly restrain herself from laughing loudly at the perplexed face Kara was making, and instead settled on just chuckling softly. "Basically, my dear, the food you eat from my traces would then go on to fertilize the dirt beneath our feet, and then other people or animals would eventually eat food that was given nutrients by that fertilizer, meaning many creatures will technically have eaten parts my traced food, but said food would have been mixed up with so many other bits and pieces that it wouldn't matter." A look of dawning realization crossed Kara's face at that, and the other woman nodded.

"Okay, makes sense." She muttered, still going over the implication in her head, before throwing her gaze upwards and frowning. "Well, we should get a move on and try to find somewhere to take shelter for the night."

"I couldn't agree more." Asteria drawled, waving an arm at the treeline beside her and smiling serenely. "Let us be off." And with that she stepped past the trees, leaving a mildly dazed Kara to shake her head and jog to catch up.

"So, uh, you got a boyfriend?"

If anybody asked about what the two women spoke about during their time in the forest, Asteria would merely smirk, and Kara would always clam up and yell that she totally did not say anything of the sort, vehemently denying it even when nobody drew attention to it. And that the tree-root she promptly tripped on after she totally said nothing wasn't there a few seconds ago.

* * *

'Hmm, but then again, black is such a nice and calming colour...I don't kno-'

"Hey, there's a Bullhead coming! Quick, send out a flare."

Kara's shout drew Asteria from her thoughts, and the woman quickly whipped out her flare gun, swinging her arm upwards and clenching her finger around the trigger before stopping just before firing. "Kara...when you came out here, what, exactly, was your mission?"

Surprised by Asteria's sudden question, Kara had to stop and think for a moment, her mind still reeling from finally being saved. She NEEDED a nice long bath. "Well, we were investigating reports that the White Fang had set up a base of some kind in the area. Why?"

Sighing, Asteria lowered the flare gun, frowning up at the Bullhead. "Because I'm fairly sure standard Bullheads don't have Red Wolf emblems emblazoned on their sides." She gestured towards the swiftly approaching aircraft, and Kara's eyes widened as she looked upon the aircraft and spotted the mark of the White Fang proudly painted on the aircraft, with the 3 slashes carved through it.

"Oh shit!" Was her eloquent response. "We need to...uh...fuck."

Raising an eyebrow, Asteria couldn't help herself. "Maybe later dear." And laughed at the absolutely horrified look Kara gave her. "But we should focus on that Bullhead. I'm assuming since you came out here you can handle yourself against the typical White Fang grunts, yes?" Waiting a beat for Kara to nod, Asteria glanced about. "Well, they obviously know someone is out here, and I'm not one for hiding away, so...-" Without warning, Asteria snapped her arm up again, firing off the flare before dropping the gun and dematerializing it, simultaneously lowering her hands to her thighs and snatching her revolvers up, twirling them once before holding them up beside her normal ears, "-let's just bring them to us."

Kara looked to be crossed between panicking, running away, and strangling Asteria. "D-...I-...The FUCK!" She finally settled on, before pinching her nose and drawing her sword. "When we get to Vale, you and I are gonna have a serious fucking talk about what constitutes a good idea."

"But this IS a good idea." Was all Asteria said, watching the Bullhead as it swept in and opened its doors, depositing around a dozen White Fang soldiers in the clearing, who quickly moved to surround the pair. A few of them looked pointedly confused at Asteria, sniffing and growling, leading Asteria to realize that, while she trusted her new ally with the information, she kept forgetting to tell her. "Ahh...Kara, one thing I should mention, I kinda forgot."

Waiting for the woman to look at her, Asteria unfurled the ears on her head, twitching them a bit before letting them go limp for comfort and focusing back on the White Fang, who were eyeing her warily. "Y-you're..." Kara stuttered out.

With another short sigh, Asteria looked at Kara. "Yes, I am a Faunus. I realized it may end poorly if one of them suddenly revealed my heritage in the middle of the fight as a distraction and caused you to get injured or killed so I'm doing it now. A better outcome than realizing it and being distracted enough for a sword to slip past your guard, hmm?" With no warning, Asteria suddenly lunged forwards, her revolvers up, and she snapped off two shots, the high-powered rounds blasting straight through the comparably weak aura of her opponents and putting neat holes in their heads.

Capitalizing on the surprise of the White Fang, Kara snapped her own sword up, firing a round of fire dust at her opponent and charging, barely sparing a glance at the man who was now screaming as the fire burnt through his aura and began eating away at his skin. The smell of charred flesh filled the air and more than a few of the Faunus grimaced at the disgusting scent. Asteria herself had to suppress a wince as the smell wafted over her, though she had enough control to continue her attack, jamming the barrel of her revolver into her opponents eye and neatly sidestepping his furious and wild counter-attack, backstepping from another swing and using her revolver to further deflect the strike, jabbing her other revolver into the side of her opponent and firing, watching the blood spill from the new hole in his side for a moment.

Disengaging her opponents, Kara found a moment to breath, wipe the blood and sweat from her face and glance at Asteria, admiring her as she demolished her opponents ruthlessly, a rather surgical and scientific method to her fighting, ensuring she had almost total control of the area around herself at all times, never allowing a strike to come too close to herself. She was always ready to use any part of herself or her equipment to deflect strikes, at one point even letting go of one of her revolvers and using the weapon to deflect one strike, using her hand to deflect a second one, then catching the weapon and firing a shot into the hand attached to the still-extended weapon before immediately lashing out again to block a strike.

So distracted with watching Asteria fight, Kara didn't notice the man approaching her until the whistling of a blade cut through the air. It was clear Asteria noticed it too if the fleeting look of surprise coming across her face was any indication. The moments after that, when Kara closed her eyes and grimaced, knowing her opponent would certainly not fail to kill her, striking with such an advantage, were filled with the dark back of her eyelids.

A few more moments passed, and no sudden lance of pain came across her. Opening an eye and looked behind her, Kara almost collapsed.

Asteria was stood behind her, bloodied hand over her left eye, a gore-covered revolver held limply in her hand. Her other revolver was buried up to the cylinder in the head of the last White Fang, blood flowing from the wound freely. Kara wasn't ready when Asteria turned and...frowned at her. She didn't glare, she didn't get angry or tear up or...or...anything, she just frowned.

Without another word, the revolvers suddenly disappeared, re-appearing unblemished in her holsters, and the woman shook her hand off, removing some of the blood. "Well, that was...pleasant, if a little exciting at the end."

Kara's mouth fell wide open, and she stuttered for a moment before her face scrunched up in anger. "A little fucking exciting?! You almost-...I alm...Y-" She clenched her eyes shut and pressed her hands into fists, taking deep breaths while Asteria watched. "Eye." She said quietly, and Asteria raised her right eyebrow in question. "Show me your eye." She growled out, and Asteria shrugged before removing her hand, letting Kara see her eye and sigh in relief. "At le-...least you didn't lose it..." She breathed.

Asteria was a little confused. She had her hand over her eye to keep the blood from her wound running into it and distracting her. It was kind of irritating that not a week after arriving and she managed to injure herself, but it was to be expected none the less, and she presumed that many more injuries would all themselves to the list before her time on the planet came to a close. The most irritating part was that because it was a head wound, it would bleed far more profusely than a wound its size would normally, should it have been on her limbs rather than her head. The scratch that went over her eye was barely more than an incision. The weapon which made it was sharp enough to ensure the edges weren't jagged, and while it was moderately painful, it wasn't particularly deep, nor did it threaten her vision anymore.

Not that she would let damage to her vision remain. The blade did actually go through her eye, but she fixed it almost instantly and left the scar behind. Cosmetic injuries were fine by her, but losing the ability to do something was unacceptable, and she allowed herself the choice to fix her body with her powers if anything even severely afflicted her. But for this wound, she would let the scar. Besides, trying to explain how it suddenly healed would be a hassle, and she would only deal with that kind of hassle if something major came up.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. Now, why did you freeze up so suddenly?" Kara cringed away from the other woman as Asteria levelled her glare upon the huntress. "You said you could handle yourself, and you seemed to be doing just fine. There was one enemy left for you to handle. One. And you let yourself get distracted, why?"

Frowning, Kara twisted to meet Asteria's glare, her lips downturned. "Because...I-...Ithoughtyourfightingstylewascool." She blurted out quickly, cringing immediately after saying that, missing Asteria's brief surprise as she tried to piece together what Kara said, before a smirk appeared on her lips.

"Oh? So you liked how I fight hmm?" She purred, enjoying how Kara fidgeted and squirmed, trying to avoid saying anything. "Well, I can't say I expected to be so...dis-trac-ting." She deliberately slowed down her last word, rolling the letters and adding a little playfulness to her voice, before she finally hit her limit and burst out in chuckles at the bright red on her companions face.

"S-shut up." Was her meagre response, and she pouted at the lab-coat wearing woman, who had her arms folded before her as she softly chuckled at her. "A-anyway, we should probably address the goliath in the room." She said with a frown. Asteria just quirked an eyebrow, and Kara gestured at the top of her head, miming something like bunny ears.

"Ahh, yes. I do apologize for keeping these ears a secret, but when I first met you I was rather worried you might find prejudice against me for my ears, and then after that...I never really saw a good opportunity to really bring it up." She unfolded her ears while saying this, stretching them out and flopping them about a bit to work out the kinks from having them hidden the entire time.

"Ehh, whatever. Look, just...please don't keep things like that secret, at least from me. And, to buy my secrecy, it'll cost ya..." She trailed off with a dreamy smile, and Asteria frowned, snapping her fingers in front of Kara's face and bring her back from her daydream. "What?"

"What do I have to pay for your secrecy?" She said bluntly, and Kara looked at her for a moment before frowning.

"I didn't mean money or anything, silly. You-" She poked at Asteria's chest, "-just have to stop by every now and again. I don't really know what you plan on doing when you get to Vale, but you have to promise to stop by my place every month or so. To catch up, y'know?"

"Hmm, while I can't promise I'll always be able to come every month, having something like that does sound..pleasant, and might help to keep me grounded...very well, I promise that I shall, to the best of my ability, visit your...'place'...every month to...'catch up', as you say."

"You...you don't really hear much slang, do you?" Kara asked, frowning when Asteria shrugged. "Do...How much time do you actually spend around other people?" She asked bluntly, and Asteria smirked at her rather honest questioning.

"Far too little time to be considered healthy I'm sure. Now, if you are quite done playing twenty questions, we should probably leave before that Bullhead comes back."

Yelping, Kara threw her gaze to the sky and scanned it quickly, before shoving her sword into its sheath and jogging into the treeline. "Yeah, let's go, like NOW!" She called out over her shoulder, and Asteria shook her head before following at her own sedate and comfortable pace, a serene smile on her lips, whispering quietly.

"Definitely not a boring experience."

* * *

**Before any, ANY, of you fuckers start, let me address this.**

**Ap ap ap ap, stop typing that review. Stop it! STAHP IT! ...Good. Now then.**

**Asteria is overpowered as fuck, duh. if she wanted to, she would snap her dimensional entity fingers and the entire fucking Multiverse would disappear. She's my Universe's version of Stan Lee/The-One-Above-All, literally the Queen of Gods. She's the monster that deities like Cthulhu look under the bed for, the one that Gods whisper about.**

**She understands niches of language a bit too well for what amounts to a brand new entity in the world. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say she has bullshit powers that let her talk naturally to Kara.**

**Her scar. Sure, whatever. I drew it because I felt like a scar added to her looks alright? I don't care if with an errant thought she could remove it, I like it, it gives her character, and it's a great conversation piece, so fuck you guys.**

_**Fire, dear, please don't insult all our lovely readers.**_

**Fuck you, Illustrious.**

...

**Sawwy, I didn't mean it.**

_**I know. Still love ya.**_

**Aww, thanks.**

_**Someone has to.**_

**...Prick.**

_**Bitch.**_


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